Customer Level Sorting Lösungen - Separieren von Batchaufträgen in teil- und vollautomatisierten Lageranlagen

Research output: ThesisMaster's Thesis

Abstract

The requirements for intralogistics-systems are constantly increasing, due to the rising importance of logistics performance all over the supply chain. The change of consumers buying behaviors towards e-commerce business leads to an increasing complexity in warehousing processes along the logistics chain, especially when it comes to typical small orders that are standard in the direct to customer sale. Specific strategies are needed to keep up with the high amount of small orders in a short period of time. One of those strategies implements two step picking, which means the concentration of more than one small order in a so called “order batch”. Transporting more than one single small order in a carton makes the transport much more efficient than conveying each carton with just one or two products inside. After the picking of the merged orders in one single target tote, they need to be separated again just before the shipping process. This separation process is also called Customer Level Sorting, which is the main subject of this thesis that was written on behalf of KNAPP AG, which is a specialist in intralogistics solutions. The described Customer Level Sorting is limited to the material handling process, which is provided in different degrees of automation. Before a structuring of the whole sequence into subprocesses was made, the theoretical part provides an overview over intralogistics and its characteristic processes. Starting with the different types of warehouses, the theoretical section comprises common warehousing activities and the data and information behind the actions. In the practical section, there is an analysis of existing solutions for the subprocesses, that ends up in a creation of 27 arrangements, which are later reduced to five solution configurations, that each provide the facility of Customer Level Sorting in different ways. The five solution configurations of the subprocesses create different flow rates and are described with their different equipment requirements. The process descriptions are limited to the material handling of packaged goods, such as cosmetics or small carton boxes.

Details

Translated title of the contributionCustomer Level Sorting Solutions - Separation of Orderbatches in Semi- and Fully-Automated Warehouses
Original languageGerman
QualificationDipl.-Ing.
Supervisors/Advisors
Award date14 Dec 2012
Publication statusPublished - 2012